1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the containment of oil or other pollutants along coasts, shores, banks or the like or in the vicinity of offshore oil drilling, production, processing, storage platforms or the like in any body of water. The invention pertains more particularly to a containment assembly for oil or other pollutants in bodies of water involving the preparation and control of a barricade used in the body of water surrounding the oil or other pollutants in the body of water, and the method of using the containment assembly.
2. Technical Field
Oil spills can come from a number of sources, including oil tankers, oil drilling, extraction, processing, transportation and storage.
The Oil Pollution Control Act passed in 1990 requires, among other things that the oil industry take greater precautions against spills and create detailed emergency response plans for cleaning up spills that do occur. To prevent widespread damage when spills occur, attempts are made to contain the spill using absorbent barriers or booms or to either skim or burn oil off the water's surface. Devices and methods for containing oil spills on marine surfaces are known in the art. Also, new bioremediation technologies are being developed using microorganisms to break the hydrocarbons down into less harmful compounds. When oil or other pollutant spills occur, these interventions to contain the spill take time to execute and are not good at containing the spread of the pollutant. For example, methods employed by BP to stop the leak or blowout in the Gulf of Mexico by shooting heavy drilling mud into the blown-out well 5,000 feet underwater or drilling relief wells took weeks and many attempts to realize results
Because it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of contaminant spills on or in water during the extraction, processing, and transportation, it is important to have a well-designed plan in place that can be used to limit the spread. This invention can be ready and quickly deployed to drastically contain the spread of any contaminant. Effort has been made to design the apparatus in ways and using materials that are known and readily available, to facilitate speed of detail engineering, specification and deployment.